Moody threatens to lower the US credit rating if there is no progress on debt ceiling negotiations soon
The day of reckoning beckons: Moody has threatened to lower the US credit rating if the debt ceiling negotiations don’t show progress soon.
Year: 2011
TSA testing non-contact system to detect terrorists before they act
And this is good? The TSA is testing a sensor system for detecting terrorists before they act.
The Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST) security programme is designed to spot people who are planning to commit a terrorist act. The U.S. government system can ‘sense’ when you are planning and measures physiological factors such as heart rates and eye movements.
EPA gave $1.29 Million to China
Our tax dollars at work: Under both the Bush and Obama administrations, the EPA has given $1.29 million in grants to various Chinese government agencies.
Why the Endangered Species act doesn’t work
Why the Endangered Species Act doesn’t work.
[R]adical green groups . . . [are] engaged in an industry whose waste products are fish and wildlife. You and I are a major source of revenue for that industry. The Interior Department must respond within 90 days to petitions to list species under the Endangered Species Act. Otherwise, petitioners like the Center for Biological Diversity get to sue and collect attorney fees from the Justice Department.
And this:
Amos Eno runs the hugely successful Yarmouth, Maine-based Resources First Foundation, an outfit that, among other things, assists ranchers who want to restore native ecosystems. Earlier, he worked at Interior’s Endangered Species Office, crafting amendments to strengthen the law, then went on to direct the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Eno figures the feds could “recover and delist three dozen species” with the resources they spend responding to the Center for Biological Diversity’s litigation.
“The amount of money [Center for Biological Diversity] makes suing is just obscene,” he told me. “They’re one of the reasons the Endangered Species Act has become so dysfunctional. They deserve the designation of eco-criminals.”
Former astronaut calls for the dismantling of NASA
Former astronaut calls for the dismantling of NASA.
The costs of space cargo
This week there was a bit of a political kerfuffle during House hearings over a House report [pdf] that stated that the cost per pound for launching cargo to ISS was much cheaper using the shuttle versus the new commercial companies under the COTS program. This is shown in this table from page 5 of the report:
The problem is that these numbers are a complete lie, as they are based on a yearly cost of $3 billion to operate the shuttle (highlighted in yellow). I have been following NASA budget battles now for decades, and the shuttle operational budget has never, ever been that low. Routinely, NASA figures the cost to operate the shuttle per year, regardless of number of flights, to be about $4 billion per year.
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A bureaucratic fight stalls oil drilling in Alaska
Government in action: A bureaucratic fight stalls an oil drill project in Alaska.
The project has put two federal agencies at odds. The Environmental Protection Agency has maintained that a roadless alternative, which would route the pipeline under the Nigliq Channel and use an airstrip instead of a road and bridge, would be less damaging to the reserve’s environment. The Interior Department backs Conoco’s proposal as environmentally preferable.
Student prohibited from graduation for Facebook comments
Freedom dies: A student was banned from graduation for criticizing his school on Facebook.
In a letter to [the student], [Vice President for Student Development and Services Eric W.] Jackson explained that the reason for his prohibition was the Facebook comments, adding that “[a]ll students enrolled at Saint Augustine’s College are responsible for protecting the reputation of the college and supporting its mission.”
In other words, the students at this hack of a school are required to promote the school at all times. What idiocy.
California’s gold-mining environmental rules cost five times what they earn in fees
More government stupidity: Because California’s gold-mining environmental rules cost five times more than what they earn in fees, the state legislature can’t afford to fund the process. The result: an end to all gold-mining in California.
Alaskans push for changes in TSA screening
First Texas, now Alaska: Pressure from legislators there has forced TSA officials to consider the use of common sense profiling.
Endeavour not expected to arrive in L.A. until late 2012
To the museum: Endeavour will not arrive in at its Los Angeles retirement home until late 2012.
First sale for quantum computing
Lockheed Martin buys the first commercial quantum computer. More here on the science of quantum computing.
Quantum computers could revolutionize the way we tackle problems that stump even the best classical computers, which store and process their data as ‘bits’ — essentially a series of switches that can be either on or off. The power of quantum bits — or qubits — is that they can be on and off simultaneously. Connect enough qubits together using quantum entanglement and a computer should be able to zip through a multitude of calculations in parallel, at astonishing speed.